Page 89 of The Wishing Game

And by God I willnotgive up. I'll see this through to the end and I'll get my wish. If only his soul were still around...

I sigh deeply at the thought.

Ze's fingers dig into his legs, his gaze still forward. He doesn't probe further about Nikki, and I don't say anything more, the silence offering a comforting embrace.

The plane slowly fills up, more people coming in. Ze is alert and curious as he watches everyone, probably taking note of how other people look since it doesn't seem that he's been around too many humans before.

"Is your species so much more different than humans?" I ask.

"Of course. We are much stronger," he replies smoothly—not that I expected him to say anything different.

"Then are all men similar in size to you and Cer? Thea isn't that much taller than me, so I'm assuming not all of you are giants."

"No."

"No? That's it?" I raise my brows at him.

He narrows his eyes at me.

"You harpies are quite odd," I muse, watching him closely.

"H-harpies?" He blinks, his eyes wide with shock.

"Well, that's what you are, no?" I smile sweetly.

"That is...correct." He swallows uncomfortably, probably finding it hard to keep up the lie when the mere notion of it offends his superior sensibilities. Yet this just confirmed my theory.

When I'd had a moment to myself, I quickly googled harpies in an attempt to learn more about them. The doubts had already been planted after what happened at the theatre, but I'm a complete newbie to this world, so what would I know? But Wikipedia does have an entry forharpiesand it describes them as half maidens, half birds. More research into Greek mythology yielded the same results. Since neither Cer nor Ze are maidens, I fail to see how they could be harpies.

Now it remains to be seen what they really are. That little lie aside, I find it easy to trust them. My instincts tell me that I can count on them, and I've already seen the evidence of that during the first trial. But that doesn't mean I won't keep my guard up. I only have one purpose in this game—getting Nikki back. Anything else is moot.

The plane continues to fill up, and just when I'm about to rejoice that maybe the seat next to me will be empty, someone comes. A man in his thirties gives me a tentative smile as he places his luggage in the overhead compartment before he settles in his seat.

"Hi." He turns to me. "I'm Matthew. We'll be on this flight for quite some time, no?" he says with a nervous laugh.

I force my lips into a smile, not wanting to be rude. God, how I hate it when strangers are talkative for no reason.

Before I can answer, Ze suddenly stands up.

"Ze." I gasp, grabbing onto him for fear he might hit his head on the ceiling. "Careful, please," I whisper, and he barely avoids a direct hit as he bends forward.

"I do not like the window seat," he states in a tense voice. Turning ever so slightly, his gaze meets that of nervous Matthew and Ze regales him with one of his glares. Everyone is staring at us.

"You will change seats with me, human. Now," he commands me, his voice chilling.

"But, Ze, the middle seat is too small for you," I murmur a weak protest. "It's a fifteen-hour flight. You'll be miserable."

His eyes move from Matthew to me.

"You will move," he repeats.

Before I can say anything more, he grabs me by the waist, easily lifting me up and changing our seats. He carefully places me in the window seat while he wiggles his big frame into the middle one. Shaking my head at him, I scoot over to give him a little more space.

Ze nods to himself, a slight smile on his lips. But as he looks at Matthew, the smile turns into a scowl.

"You do not talk to her," he tells him in a stern tone. Matthew's eyes widen as he glances at me with concern. "You do not look at her," Ze continues, his voice tightening. "You do not acknowledge she exists."

"I-I-I'm sorry, man," Matthew stammers, quickly averting his glance and making himself small in his seat. "I didn't know she was with you."

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